Labour in Irish History

by James Connolly

Were the hand of Locke to hold from
heaven a scheme of government most perfectly adapted to the nature
and capabilities of the Irish nation, it would drop to the ground
a mere sounding scroll were there no other means of giving it
effect than its intrinsic excellence. All true Irishmen agree in
what ought to be done, but how to get it done is the question.
-- Secret Manifesto. (Ireland), 1793.

In our last chapter we pointed out how the
close of the Napoleonic wars precipitated a commercial crisis in
Great Britain and Ireland, and how in the latter country it also
served to intensify the bitterness of the relations existing between
landlord and tenant. During the continuance of the wars against
Napoleon, agricultural prices had steadily risen owing to the demand
by the British Government for provisions to supply its huge army and
navy. With the rise in prices rents had also risen, but when the
close of the war cut off the demand, and prices consequently fell,
rents did not fall along with them. A falling market and a
stationary or rising rent-roll could have but one result in Ireland
-- viz., agrarian war.

The landlords insisted upon their `pound of
flesh,' and the peasantry organised in secret to terrorise their
oppressors and protect themselves. In the year 1829 a fresh cause of
popular misery came as a result of the Act granting Catholic
Emancipation. Until that year no Catholic had the right to sit in
the English House of Commons, to sit on the Bench as a Judge, or to
aspire to any of the higher posts in the Civil, Military, or Naval
services. As the culmination of a long fight against this iniquitous
`Protestant Ascendancy,' after he had aroused the entire Catholic
population to a pitch of frenzy against the injustices inherent in
it, the Catholic leader, Daniel O'Connell, presented himself as a
candidate for the representation in Parliament of the County Clare,
declaring that if elected he would refuse to take the oath then
required of a Member of Parliament, as it libelled the Catholic
Religion. In Ireland at that time open voting prevailed, every
elector having to declare openly before the clerks of the election
and all others who chose to attend, the name of the candidate for
whom he voted. In Ireland at that time also, most of the tenants
were tenants-at-will, removable at the mere pleasure of the agent or
landlord. Hence elections were a combination of farce and tragedy --
a farce as far as a means of ascertaining the real wish of the
electors was concerned, a tragedy whenever any of the tenants dared
to vote against the nominee of the landlord. The suffrage had been
extended to all tenants paying an annual rental of forty shillings,
irrespective of religious belief, but the terrible power of life and
death possessed by the landlord made this suffrage ordinarily
useless for popular purposes. Yet when O'Connell appealed to the
Catholic peasantry of Clare to brave the vengeance of their landed
tyrants, and vote for him in the interests of religious liberty,
they nobly responded. O'Connell was elected, and as a result
Catholic Emancipation was soon afterwards achieved. But the ruling
classes and the British Government took their revenge by coupling
with this reform a Bill depriving the smaller tenants of the
suffrage, and raising the amount of rent necessary to qualify for a
vote to ten pounds.

Up till that time landlords had rather
encouraged the growth of population on their estates, as it
increased the number of their political adherents, but with the
passage of this Act of Parliament this reason ceased to exist, and
they immediately began the wholesale eviction of their tenantry and
the conversion of the arable lands into grazing farms. The Catholic
middle, professional and landed class by Catholic Emancipation had
the way opened to them for all the snug berths in the disposal of
the Government; the Catholics of the poorer class as a result of the
same Act were doomed to extermination, to satisfy the vengeance of a
foreign Government and an aristocracy whose power had been defied
where it knew itself most supreme.

The wholesale eviction of the smaller
tenants and the absorption of their farms into huge grazing ranches,
thus closing up every avenue of employment to labour, meant death to
the agricultural population, and hence the peasantry struck back by
every means in their power. They formed lodges of the secret Ribbon
Society, made midnight raids for arms upon the houses of the gentry,
assembled at night in large bodies and ploughed up the grass lands,
making them useless for grazing purposes, filled up ditches,
terrorised graziers into surrendering their ranches, wounded and
killed those who had entered the service of graziers or obnoxious
landlords, assassinated agents, and sometimes, in sheer despair,
opposed their unarmed bodies to the arms of the military. Civil war
of the most sanguinary character was convulsing the country; in May,
1831, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and a huge military force
accompanied by artillery marched through Clare to overawe the
people, but as he did not stop evictions, nor provide employment for
the labourers whom the establishment of grazing had deprived of
their usual employment on the farm, the `outrages' still continued.
Nor were the professional patriots, or the newly emancipated
Catholic rich, any more sympathetic to the unfortunate people. They
had opened the way for themselves to place and preferment by using
the labourer and cottier-farmer as a lever to overthrow the fortress
of religious bigotry and ascendancy, and now when the fight was won,
they abandoned these poor co-religionists of theirs to the tender
mercies of their economic masters. To the cry of despair welling up
from the hearts of the evicted families, crouching in hunger upon
the road-side in sight of their ruined homes, to the heartbroken
appeal of the labourer permanently disemployed by the destruction of
his source of employment; to the wail of famishing women and
children the politicians invariably had but one answer -- `Be
law-abiding, and wait for the Repeal of the Union'. We are not
exaggerating. One of the most ardent Repealers and closest friends
of Daniel O'Connell, Mr. Thomas Steele, had the following manifesto
posted up in the Market Place of Ennis and other parts of Clare,
addressed to the desperate labourers and farmers: --

Unless you desist, I denounce you as
traitors to the cause of the liberty of Ireland...
I leave you to the Government and the fire and bayonets of the
military. Your blood be upon your own souls.

This language of denunciation was uttered
to the heroic men and women who had sacrificed their homes, their
security, and the hopes of food for their children to win the
emancipation front religious tyranny of the well-fed snobs who thus
abandoned them. It is difficult to see how a promised Repeal of the
Union some time in the future could have been of any use to the
starving men of Clare, especially when they knew that their fathers
had been starved, evicted and tyrannised over before just
as they were after the Union. At that time, however, it was
deemed a highly patriotic act to ascribe all the ills that Irish
flesh is heir to, to the Union. For example, Mr. O'Gorman Mahon,
speaking in the House of Commons, London, on February 8, 1831,
hinted that the snow-storm then covering Ireland was a result of the
Legislative Union. He said: --

Did the Hon. Members imagine that they
could prevent the unfortunate men who were under five feet of snow
from thinking they could better their condition by a Repeal of the
Union. It might be said that England had not caused the snow, but
the people had the snow on them, and they thought that their
connection with England had reduced them to the state in which they
now were''.

Another patriot, destined in after years to
don the mantle of an Irish rebel, William Smith O'Brien, at this
time, 1830, published a pamphlet advocating emigration as the one
remedy for Irish misery.

On the other hand a Commission appointed by
the House of Lords in 1839 to inquire into the causes of the unrest
and secret conspiracies amongst the poorer class examined many
witnesses in close touch with the life of the peasantry and elicited
much interesting testimony tending to prove that the evil was much
more deeply rooted than any political scheme of Government, and that
its real roots were in the social conditions. Thus examined as to
the attitude of the labourers towards the Ribbon Association, one
witness declared: --

`Many look to the Association for
protection. They think they have no other protection'.

Question: -- `What are the principal
objects they have in view'?

Answer: -- `To keep themselves upon their
lands. I have often heard their conversation, when they say: -- '

`What good did Emancipation do for us? Are
we better clothed or fed, or are our children better clothed or fed?
Are we not as naked as we were, and eating dry potatoes when we can
get them? Let us notice the farmers to give us better food and
better wages, and not give so much to the landlord, and more to the
workman; we must not be letting them be turning the poor people off
the ground'.

And a Mr. Poulett Scroope, M.P., declared
in one of his writings upon the necessity for a Poor Law: The tithe
question, the Church, the Grand Jury laws, the more or fewer
Catholics appointed to the Shrievalty or Magistracy -- these are all
topics for political agitation among idle mobs; but the midnight
massacre, the daily plunder, the frequent insurrection, the
insecurity of life and property throughout agricultural districts of
Ireland, these are neither caused by agitation, nor can be put down
with agitation''.

It will be thus seen that the opinion of
the independent Member of Parliament coincided with that of the
revolting labourers as to the relative unimportance to the toilers
of Ireland of the subjects which then, as now, bulked most largely
in the minds of politicians.

This was the state of things political and
social in Ireland in the year 1831 and as it was in Clare the final
effective blow had been struck for religious emancipation, so it
also was Clare that was destined to see the first effort to discover
a peaceful way of achieving that social Emancipation, without which
all other freedom, religious or political, must ever remain as Dead
Sea fruit to the palate of Labour.

In 1832 the great English socialist, Robert
Owen, visited Ireland and held a number of meetings in the Rotunda,
Dublin, for the purpose of explaining the principles of Socialism to
the people of that city. His audiences were mainly composed of the
well-to-do inhabitants, as was, indeed, the case universally at that
period when Socialism was the fad of the rich instead of the faith
of the poor. The Duke of Leinster, the Catholic Archbishop Murray,
Lord Meath, Lord Cloncurry, and others occupied the platform, and as
a result of the picture drawn by Owen of the misery then existing,
and the attendant insecurity of life and property amongst all
classes, and his outline of the possibilities which a system of
Socialist co-operation could produce, an association styling itself
the Hibernian Philanthropic Society was formed to carry out his
ideas. A sum of money was subscribed to aid the prospects of the
society, a General Brown giving £1,000, Lord Cloncurry £500, Mr.
Owen himself subscribing £1,000, and £100 being raised from other
sources. The society was short-lived and ineffectual, but one of the
members, Mr. Arthur Vandeleur, an Irish landlord, was so deeply
impressed with all he had seen and heard of the possibilities of
Owenite Socialism, that in 1831, when crime and outrage in the
country had reached its zenith, and the insecurity of life in his
own class had been brought home to him by the assassination of the
steward of his estate for unfeeling conduct towards the labourers,
he resolved to make an effort to establish a Socialist colony upon
his property at Ralahine, County Clare. For that purpose he invited
to Ireland a Mr. Craig, of Manchester, a follower of Owen, and
entrusted him with the task of carrying the project into execution.

Though Mr. Craig knew no Irish, and the
people of Ralahine, as a rule, knew no English -- a state of matters
which greatly complicated the work of explanation -- an
understanding was finally arrived at, and the estate was turned over
to an association of the people organised under the title of The
Ralahine Agricultural and Manufacturing Co-operative Association.

In the preamble to the Laws of the
Association, its objects were defined as follows: --

The acquisition of a common capital.

The mutual assurance of its members against
the evils of poverty, sickness, infirmity, and old age.

The attainment of a greater share of the
comforts of life than the working classes now possess.

The mental and moral improvement of its
adult members.

The education of their children.

The following paragraphs selected from the
Rules of the Association will give a pretty clear idea of its most
important features: --

Basis Of The Society

That all the stock, implements of
husbandry, and other property belong to and are the property of
Mr. Vandeleur, until the Society accumulates sufficient to pay for
them; they then become the joint property of the Society.

Production

We engage that whatever talents we may
individually possess, whether mental or muscular, agricultural,
manufacturing, or scientific, shall be directed to the benefit of
all, as well by their immediate exercise in all necessary
occupations as by communicating our knowledge to each other, and
particularly to the young.

That, as far as can be reduced to
practice, each individual shall assist in agricultural operations,
particularly in harvest, it being fully understood that no
individual is to act as steward, but all are to work.

That all the youth, male or female, do
engage to learn some useful trade, together with agriculture and
gardening, between the ages of nine and seventeen years.

That the committee meet every evening to
arrange the business for the following day.

That the hours of labour be from six in
the morning till six in the evening in summer, and from daybreak
till dusk in winter, with the intermission of one hour for dinner.

That each agricultural labouring man
shall receive eightpence, and every woman fivepence per day for
their labour (these were the ordinary wages of the country, the
secretary, storekeeper, smiths, joiners, and a few others received
something more; the excess being borne by the proprietor) which it
is expected will be paid out at the store in provisions, or any
other article the society may produce or keep there; any other
articles may be purchased elsewhere.

That no member be expected to perform any
service or work but such as is agreeable to his or her feelings,
or they are able to perform; but if any member thinks that any
other member is not usefully employing his or her time, it is his
or her duty to report it to the committee, whose duty it will be
to bring that member's conduct before a general meeting, who shall
have power, if necessary, to expel that useless member.

Distribution And Domestic Economy

That all the services usually performed
by servants be performed by the youth of both sexes under the age
of seventeen years, either by rotation or choice.

That the expenses of the children's food,
clothing, washing, lodging, and education be paid out of the
common funds of the society, from the time they are weaned till
they arrive at the age of seventeen, when they shall be eligible
to become members.

That a charge be made for the food and
clothing, &c., of those children trained by their parents, and
residing in their dwelling houses.

That each person occupying a house, or
cooking and consuming their victuals therein, must pay for the
fuel used.

That no charge be made for fuel used in
the public room.

That it shall be a special object for the
sub-committee of domestic economy, or the superintendent of that
department, to ascertain and put in practice the best and most
economical methods of preparing and cooking the food.

That all the washing be done together in
the public washhouse; the expenses of soap, labour, fuel, &
c., to be equally borne by all the adult members.

That each member pay the sum of one
half-penny out of every shilling received as wages to form a fund
to be placed in the hands of the committee, who shall pay the
wages out of this fund of any member who may fall sick or meet
with an accident.

Any damage done by a member to the stock,
implements, or any other property belonging to the society to be
made good out of the wages of the individual, unless the damage is
satisfactorily accounted for to the committee.

Education And Formation Of Character

We guarantee each other that the young
children of any person dying whilst a member of this society,
shall be equally protected, educated, and cherished with the
children of the living members, and entitled, when they arrive at
the age of seventeen, to all the privileges of members.

That each individual shall enjoy perfect
liberty of conscience, and freedom of expression of opinion, and
in religious worship.

That no spirituous liquors of any kind,
tobacco, or snuff be kept in the store, or on the premises.

That if any of us should unfortunately
have a dispute with any other person, we agree to abide by a
decision of the majority of the members, or any person to whom the
matter in question may be by them referred.

That any person wishing to marry another
do sign a declaration to that effect one week previous to the
marriage taking place, and that immediate preparations be made for
the erection, or fitting-up of a suitable dwelling house for their
reception.

That any person wishing to marry another
person, not a member, shall sign a declaration according to the
last rule; the person not a member shall then be balloted for,
and, if rejected, both must leave the society.

That if the conduct of any member be
found injurious to the well- being of the society, the committee
shall explain to him or her in what respect his or her conduct
shall continue to transgress the rules, such member shall be
brought before a general meeting, called for the purpose, and if
the complaint be substantiated, three-fourths of the members
present shall have power to expel, by ballot, such refractory
member.

Government

The society to be governed, and its
business transacted, by a committee of nine members, to be chosen
half-yearly, by ballot, by all the adult male and female members,
the ballot list to contain at least four of the last committee.

The committee to meet every evening and
their transactions to be regularly entered into a minute book, the
recapitulation of which is to be given at the society's general
meeting by the secretary.

That there be a general weekly meeting of
the society; that the treasurer's accounts be audited by the
committee, and read over to the society; that the `Suggestion
Book' be also read at this meeting.

The colony did not use the ordinary
currency of the country, but instead adopted a `Labour Note' system
of payment, all workers being paid in notes according to the number
of hours worked, and being able to exchange the notes in the store
for all the necessities of life. The notes were printed on stiff
cardboard about the size of a visiting card, and represented the
equivalent of a whole, a half, a quarter, an eighth, and a sixteenth
of a day's labour. There were also special notes printed in red ink
representing respectively the labours of a day and a half, and two
days. In his account of the colony published under the title of History
of Ralahine, by Heywood & Sons, Manchester (a book we
earnestly recommend to all our readers), Mr. Craig says: -- `The
labour was recorded daily on a `Labour Sheet', which was exposed to
view during the following week. The members could work or not at
their own discretion. If no work, no record, and, therefore, no pay.
Practically the arrangement was of great use. There were no idlers'.
Further on he comments: --

The advantages of the labour notes were
soon evident in the saving of members. They had no anxiety as to
employment, wages, or the price of provisions. Each could partake of
as much vegetable food as he or she could desire. The expenses of
the children from infancy, for food or education, were provided for
out of the common fund.''

The object should be to obtain a rule of
justice, if we seek the law of righteousness. This can only be fully
realised in that equality arising out of a community of property
where the labour of one member is valued at the same rate as that of
another member, and labour is exchanged for labour. It was not
possible to attain to this condition of equality at Ralahine, but we
made such arrangements as would impart a feeling of security,
fairness and justice to all. The prices of provisions were fixed and
uniform. A labourer was charged one shilling a week for as many
vegetables and as much fruit as he chose to consume; milk was a
penny per quart; beef and mutton fourpence, and pork two and
one-half pence per pound. The married members occupying separate
quarters were charged sixpence per week for rent, and twopence for
fuel''.

In dealing with Ireland no one can afford
to ignore the question of the attitude of the clergy; it is
therefore interesting to quote the words of an English visitor to
Ralahine, a Mr. Finch, who afterwards wrote a series of fourteen
letters describing the community, and offered to lay a special
report before a Select Committee of the House of Commons upon the
subject. He says: --

The only religion taught by the society was
the unceasing practice of promoting the happiness of every man,
woman, and child to the utmost extent in their power. Hence the
Bible was not used as a school-book; no sectarian opinions were
taught in the schools; no public dispute about religious dogmas or
party political questions took place; nor were members allowed to
ridicule each other's religion; nor were there any attempts at
proselytism. Perfect freedom in the performance of religious duties
and religious exercises was guaranteed to all. The teaching of
religion was left to ministers of religion and to the parents; but
no priest or minister received anything from the funds of the
society. Nevertheless, both Protestant and Catholic priests were
friendly to the system as soon as they understood it, and one reason
was that they found these sober, industrious persons had now a
little to give them out of their earnings, whereas formerly they had
been beggars''.

Mr. Craig also states that the members of
the community, after it had been in operation for some time, were
better Catholics than before they began. He had at first
considerable difficulty in warding off the attacks of zealous
Protestant proselytisers, and his firmness in doing so was one of
the chief factors in winning the confidence of the people as well as
their support in insisting upon the absolutely non-sectarian
character of the teaching.

All disputes between the members were
settled by appeals to a general meeting in which all adults of both
sexes participated, and from which all judges, lawyers, and other
members of the legal fraternity were rigorously excluded.

To those who fear that the institution of
common property will be inimical to progress and invention, it must
be reassuring to learn that this community of `ignorant' Irish
peasants introduced into Ralahine the first reaping machine used in
Ireland, and hailed it as a blessing at a time when the gentleman
farmers of England were still gravely debating the practicability of
the invention. From an address to the agricultural labourers of the
County Clare, issued by the community on the introduction of this
machine, we take the following passages, illustrative of the
difference of effect between invention under common ownership and
capitalist ownership: --

This machine of ours is one of the first
machines ever given to the working classes to lighten their labour,
and at the same time increase their comforts. It does not benefit
any one person among us exclusively, nor throw any individual out of
employment. Any kind of machinery used for shortening labour --
except used in a co- operative society like ours -- must tend to
lessen wages, and to deprive working men of employment, and finally
either to starve them, force them into some other employment (and
then reduce wages in that also) or compel them to emigrate. Now, if
the working classes would cordially and peacefully unite to adopt
our system, no power or party could prevent their success''.

This was published by order of the
committee, 21st August, 1833, and when we observe the date we cannot
but wonder at the number of things Clare -- and the rest of Ireland
-- has forgotten since.

It must not be supposed that the landlord
of the estate on which Ralahine was situated had allowed his
enthusiasm for Socialism to run away with his self-interest. On the
contrary, when turning over his farms to the community he stipulated
for the payment to himself of a very heavy rental in kind. We
extract from Brotherhood, a Christian Socialist Journal
published in the north of Ireland in 1891, a statement of the
rental, and a very luminous summing-up of the lesson of Ralahine, by
the editor, Mr. Bruce Wallace, long a hard and unselfish worker for
the cause of Socialism in Ireland: --

The Association was bound to deliver
annually, either at Ralahine, Bunratty, Clare, or Limerick, as the
landlord might require, free of expense --

Wheat

320 brls.

Barley

240 brls.

Oats

50 brls.

Butter

10 cwt.

Pork

30 cwt.

Beef

70 cwt.

At the prices then prevailing, this
amount of produce would be equivalent to about, £900, £700 of
rent for the use of natural forces and opportunities, and £200 of
interest upon capital. It was thus a pretty stiff tribute that
these poor Irish toilers had to pay for the privilege of making a
little bit of their native soil fruitful. This tribute was, of
course, so much to be deducted from the means of improving their
sunken condition. In any future efforts that may be made to profit
by the example of Ralahine and to apply again the principles of
co- operation in farming, there ought to be the utmost care taken
to reduce to a minin um the tribute payable to non-workers, and if
possible to get rid of it altogether. If, despite this heavy
burden of having to produce a luxurious maintenance for loungers,
the condition of the toilers at Ralahine, as we shall see, was
marvellously raised by the introduction of the co-operative
principle amongst them, how much more satisfactorily would it have
been raised had they been free of that depressing dead weight?

Such is the lesson of Ralahine. Had all the
land and buildings belonged to the people, had all other estates in
Ireland been conducted on the same principles, and the industries of
the country also so organised, had each of them appointed delegates
to confer on the business of the country at some common centre as
Dublin, the framework and basis of a free Ireland would have been
realised. And when Ireland does emerge into complete control of her
own destinies she must seek the happiness of her people in the
extension on a national basis of the social arrangements of Ralahine,
or else be but another social purgatory for her poor -- a purgatory
where the pangs of the sufferers will be heightened by remembering
the delusive promises of political reformers.

In the most crime-ridden county in Ireland
this partial experiment in Socialism abolished crime; where the
fiercest fight for religious domination had been fought it brought
the mildest tolerance; where drunkenness had fed fuel to the darkest
passions it established sobriety and gentleness; where poverty and
destitution had engendered brutality, midnight marauding, and a
contempt for all social bonds, it enthroned security, peace and
reverence for justice, and it did this solely by virtue of the
influence of the new social conception attendant upon the
institution of common property bringing a common interest to all.
Where such changes came in the bud, what might we not expect from
the flower? If a partial experiment in Socialism, with all the
drawbacks of an experiment, will achieve such magnificent results
what could we not rightfully look for were all Ireland, all the
world, so organised on the basis of common property, and
exploitation and mastership forever abolished ?

The downfall of the Association came as a
result of the iniquitous land laws of Great Britain refusing to
recognise the right of such a community to hold a lease or to act as
tenants. The landlord, Mr. Vandeleur, lost his fortune in a gambling
transaction in Dublin, and fled in disgrace, unable to pay his
debts. The persons who took over the estate under bankruptcy
proceedings refused to recognise the community, insisted upon
treating its members as common labourers on the estate, seized upon
the buildings and grounds and broke up the Association.

So Ralahine ended. But in the rejuvenated
Ireland of the future the achievement of those simple peasants will
be dwelt upon with admiration as a great and important landmark in
the march of the human race towards its complete social
emancipation. Ralahine was an Irish point of interrogation erected
amidst the wildernesses of capitalist thought and feudal practice,
challenging both in vain for an answer. Other smaller communities
were also established in Ireland during the same period. A Lord
Wallscourt established a somewhat similar community on his estate in
County Galway; The Quarterly Review of November, 1819,
states that there was then a small community existent nine miles
outside Dublin, which held thirty acres, supported a priest and a
school of 300 children, had erected buildings, made and sold
jaunting cars, and comprised butchers, carpenters and wheelwrights;
the Quakers of Dublin established a Co-operative Woollen Factory,
which flourished until it was destroyed by litigation set on foot by
dissatisfied members who had been won over to the side of rival
capitalists, and a communal home was established and long maintained
in Dublin by members of the same religious sect, but without any
other motive than that of helping forward the march of social
amelioration. We understand that the extensive store of Messrs.
Ganly & Sons on Usher's Quay in Dublin was the home of this
community, who lived, worked and enjoyed themselves in the spacious
halls, and slept in the smaller rooms of what is now the property of
a capitalist auctioneer.